Drake Well Marathon

The Titusville area was first settled in 1796 by Jonathan Titus with lumber being the principal industry for many of its formative years. However, in the late 1850s, this all changed. Oil was known to exist in the area here, but there was no practical way to extract it. Near the end of the decade the Seneca Oil Company sent Col. Edwin L. Drake, to start drilling on a piece of leased land just south of Titusville near what is now Oil Creek State Park. Drake hired a salt well driller, William A. Smith, in the summer of 1859. After many failures and problems with equipment and drilling, on August 27 at the site of an oil spring just south of Titusville, they finally drilled a well that could be commercially successful.

Other oil-related businesses quickly exploded on the scene. Eight refineries were built between 1862 and 1868. Drilling tools were needed and several iron works were built. Titusville grew from 250 residents to 10,000 almost overnight and in 1866 it incorporated as a city. In 1871, the first oil exchange in the United States was established here.

Oil production in Pennsylvania peaked in 1891, when other industries arose in Titusville. The iron and steel industries dominated the town in the early twentieth century with lumber eventually reclaiming its former cachet.

The Drake Well Museum now stands where Drake successfully drilled for oil. It consists of a museum with artifacts, outdoor operating oil field equipment and a research library with photographs, manuscripts and more.